Kerosene
by threemillionpieces
Summary: "I don't expect an answer from you, so I won't even bother to ask what you're doing here", GLaDOS said in a calm tone, turning away from the human; it almost looked like she was shrugging, "I could easily kill you now, you know." [Chell/GLaDOS, rated M for gore and sexuality in later chapters]
1. Chapter 1

The sound of her fists banging against the wooden door on the metal shed was the only sound that was echoing through the wheat fields. Her hair was sweaty, sticking to her bloody forehead which was wounded with a deep cut above her left eye, her clothes dirty, torn. Her breathing came harsh; she was on the edge and felt like collapsing any second.

The door did not move at all. Nothing happened; she felt a jolt in her ribcage. Panic. What if this was exactly the wrong decision? What if no one was ever going to open that door? What if…

Her trail of thoughts got interrupted by a clicking sound and a shrill creak. The door was opening from the inside. Staring dumbly at it, she felt overwhelmed by a mixture of all feelings a human being seemed to be able to feel at one moment.

She held her breath, placing her hand on the doorknob, pulling the door open carefully. Peeking through that little slit she just opened, exhaling. There was no one. Of course not. How could she have even expected that?

Taking a look around, she stepped inside, feeling the all-too-familiar cold, clean air around her. In the shed was nothing but an elevator. Clean, black, lighted with that cold light, waiting for her. She hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to do. But it didn't matter. It wasn't like she had any choice anyway.

Swallowing she closed the distance between herself and the elevator with a few staggering steps, placing a hand on the panel on the side. The doors slid open with a barely audible hiss. She tried to swallow again, but her throat felt dry, constricted. Entering the elevator, the doors closed instantly and the device began to move. Downwards.

~'~

She remembered that way far too well. It took long. Very long. Longer than last time? Her heart was beating at an alarming rate, breathing became hard. Again that feeling of panic. What was she doing here anyway? What was she hoping for? Why didn't she just act like any rational human being? Why did she…

"Hello?"

A far too familiar, chanting voice echoed in her ears, red light streaks crossed her eyesight, coming to a halt right at her wild beating heart. She blinked.

"Target acquired."

She was going to die, she knew it from the very start. A wave of nausea hit her and made her fall to her knees. Bowing her head, her eyesight began blurring with tears. While holding her breath she waited for the pain, for the bullets, the blackness but nothing happened.

Raising her head slowly, she looked at a yellow light which was pointed directly at her. Her. It was her. Why weren't her turrets shooting? Why was she holding them back? What was happening?

"It's you."

The monotone, but still melodic voice was resounding from the walls, sending shivers down her spine, making goose bumps spread their way over her arms and body. She did not have the courage to break the eye contact even though she felt like the pit of her stomach was on fire. She was shaking violently.

Fear, panic. All she wanted to do was run away. Get away, go away, this was all a bad idea, it was the most dumbest idea she ever had, it was…

"I don't expect an answer from you, so I won't even bother to ask what you're doing here", GLaDOS said in a calm tone, turning away from the human; it almost looked like she was shrugging, "I could easily kill you now, you know."

A chirping sound Chell couldn't identify caught her attention and before she really realized it, she was looking in the direction it came from. Near the A.I.s mainframe, two robots looked at her. She remembered them when she left aperture. What did GLaDOS call them? 'Cooperative testing initiative', it still lingered in her brain like it was yesterday when she…

"I don't want to disturb your probably very important trail of thoughts but the question still lingers. And the easiest solution would be to kill you now."

Like on command, the turrets opened their wings. She stared at them, horrified and opened her mouth, raising a hand, trying to tell the A.I. what was happening, what happened. But no sound wanted to leave her mouth. The old routine and habit where overtaking her again. She could not speak to the A.I.. She would not, could not, she wasn't even sure herself.

And it felt like time stood still. 'My refuge, the only thing I had control of is now my curse, the reason I'll die'. And the world went black.

~'~

A tearing pain in her head was the first thing she felt when she awoke. She tried to open her eyes but it felt almost impossible, her lids were heavy and there was a painful throbbing behind her eyes. Was she dead? Was death that painful?

She still felt her body. Or rather the pain in her limbs. It felt like every muscle was sore. She managed to open her eyes and realized that she was still in the A.I.s main chamber. Laying on the floor. Slowly she turned her throbbing head to face the A.I who was already watching her with her glowing optic.

"I don't need any explanations. After your spectacular breakdown, Orange and Blue were carrying you over here and examined you. For robots with brains made of old calculators they are still capable of doing simple human tasks. I find that fascinating."

Chell grimaced unwillingly at the A.I.s monologue, not surprised at all. GLaDOS hasn't changed at all - it wasn't really likely that she would.

"Anyway, your body doesn't look good. Worse than usual, I mean. But it's none of my business and I do not care. But I think I could catch a glimpse of your pitiful intentions why you came back here."

Shivering, the dark haired woman tried to get up, but it only resulted in more pain and her collapsing to her side, unable to move at all. The pain in her head reached an unbearable level and she clenched her eyes shut again.

"I do not know what ever gave you the impression that my facility is a hotel or hospital for you. Where you can come and go whenever you please."

She felt those traitorous tears again. Welling up from deep insider her stomach. She tried to take deep, still slow breaths to calm herself but it didn't work at all.

"But I am not a monster like you. In fact, I was so busy recreating the whole facility to its original state that I even kept a few of the human relaxation chambers. As a memento, of course. Orange and Blue will escort you to one of them, so you can gather some strength to leave this facility again. Soon. And hopefully forever."

Chell tried to get up again but failed miserably. Everything hurt, her head was throbbing, and her vision was blurry and beginning to spin. She closed her eyes, moving her lips in a silent curse which didn't get unnoticed by GLaDOS but the A.I. did say nothing to that.

The two robots were drawing near, she heard their footsteps and mechanical movements coming closer. A part of her was glad they existed. Something deep insider her - maybe her intuition, maybe her stupidity, maybe both of it - told her that those two would never do any harm to her. As long as GLaDOS did not command them to though.

She felt something hard and cold on her shoulders and opened her eyes a bit, to see the robot with the blue optic and rounded body crouching beside her, trying to lift her up carefully. She extended her arms, entwining them around the robot's shoulder to give it a little help with the task of carrying her. Did GLaDOS tell them to do that? Or did those two have a mind of their own?

While being lifted off the ground, her vision began to spin again violently and she squinted her eyes tightly, fighting against the nausea that came washing over her again. It was starting to worry her somehow. What has happened that she felt THAT bad? She could barely remember anything at that moment, it all felt so far away. Everything felt far away. She only knew that she was back at Aperture. And a part of her brain, well, maybe she was brain damaged, accepted the fact like she was home. It felt like coming home. The cold corridors, the clean, dry air. The artificial brightness everywhere.

She felt she was being lowered carefully onto something soft and when she opened her eyes, she saw the two robots standing beside her, regarding her with something that looked like curiosity and interest. They exchanged looks and the smaller one came nearer to her bed, chirping something in his robot-language. Chell wasn't sure if he was talking to her or what his behavior meant. She was just grateful that those two brought her here in one piece.

Still not being able to make any sound, Chell did the first thing that came to her mind. She stretched out her arm and put her hand on the robots spherical head, patting it lightly, looking to the taller robot and trying to smile at it, but realized it must've looked more like a horrible grimace.

Lowering her arm, shifting into a comfortable position on the bed, she sighed. She didn't even catch the robots leaving her rom, her eyes have already fallen shut and she was asleep.

~'~

_A/N: The first few chapters will be an introduction to the story. More or less. _


	2. Chapter 2

ArtyomTheNormal: Thank you so much for your encouraging review.

Gnarled Bone: Thank you for pointing out the typos! I will try and keep a better eye on them next time. It's just been a really long while since I've last written anything, I guess I'll have to warm up a bit first.

Guest: Thank you. :)

Kittybell: I don't want to spoiler anything so you'll have to be patient. :)

Funnybombninja: I hoped so. :'D

A/N: I am still overwhelmed by all of your feedback. And: I really appreciate any form of constructive criticism so if anyone finds typos/grammar mistakes, feel free to point them out. (: Thank you all so much.

~'~

It was underestimated to say that GLaDOS was furious with herself. She couldn't remember any day ever where she was processing so many things at once that her circuits felt like they were going to fry any second. Her fans were at 100% and red warnings flashed before her vision, but she jammed them down every time they showed up.

Why did this happen? Why was she letting the chubby lunatic stay? What on earth was wrong with her?

She groaned loud enough for her two robots to hear it outside her chamber. Of course she was very much aware that they were standing outside waiting like the little puppy dogs they were but she couldn't bring herself to open her chamber doors or let them in. It wasn't going to end well for any of them. And this time wasn't the time to let her anger leash out on them – it was completely her own fault.

Everything was so well prepared. The turrets were always on alert, the elevator was fully functional, and everything was perfectly elaborated. It was perfect. She honestly didn't think the lunatic would ever return but in that case… she was armed and ready for her. And what did she do? Nothing. She was overrun by the sight of her; she wasn't even able to command her turrets to shoot.

Why was she so shocked? Was it because of the state that the human was in? It almost felt like the moment she pulled her in from space. Like the moment she knew for sure Caroline was a part of her.

But Caroline was deleted… wasn't she? Of course she was. It wasn't like she'd ever made any mistakes.

This was like solving a paradox. It was a never-ending stream of data rushing through her processors coming up with no solution at all. Her own thoughts did not make any sense to her anymore.

First things first: she had to calm down. There was no point in trying to process any data if she was enraged.

Cancelling every task and process, clearing her random-access-memory, she focused again and replayed the scene again and again and hoped for any new insights.

She heard the banging on the door of the shed and was almost sure it was the lunatic. Who else would be so clumsy and try to smash a door rather than knocking on it or simply trying to open it? But of course she couldn't be sure as she did never install any cameras to the shed. It should appear uninteresting to humans, a camera would've just attracted unneeded attention.

Then she opened the door, which also activated the lift. And a few moments later the lift was lowering itself towards her chamber. She always had the turrets deactivated, it wasn't that unlikely that any other … creature… wanted to invade her facility. And maybe that creature would've been… useful.

But then there was her, the clumsy, chubby human. Looking like the dumb, fat idiot she always was. Standing on shaky legs in the elevator, looking at her like someone stole her candy from her and her human brain could not handle what was going on at all.

It wasn't hard to tell that she was afraid and sure of dying when the turrets located her. Which wasn't that far from the truth. But seeing her again broke some resistance inside the A.I.. Something felt wrong about murdering the woman. At least at that point now.

Was it her pitiful appearance? The torn clothes, the bruises, the blood? Something inside GLaDOS stung. She couldn't remember the human ever looking that wounded when she solved test chambers. Never. Not even after the moron's little stunt where she got thrown across the room and the A.I. expected her to have every bone in her body broken. Maybe it would've been too easy to kill her when she was already on the edge. Yes, right, that sounded about just right.

When she fell to her knees, defeated, and their eyes met, something inside GLaDOS clenched and hurt. Was she afraid of the human? What was that feeling? She did kill her twice, yes, but was there any rational reason for that kind of feeling at all? It wasn't like she experienced much feelings. Oh, she knew hate. Very well indeed. And pain, fear. But that was about it. Those feelings she had that moment weren't like the fear she had of the feathered monster – it was different.

It was like when she pulled her back from space – but… how?...

Again that catch-22 which made her angry and her circuits boil. Her original plan has left her completely when the woman broke down and lost her consciousness. It was humiliating and pitiful for an A.I. of her size to be manipulated so easily.

But still. The human was the monster – not her. So it was only natural to offer help when someone was in need. Right? Of course.

She felt heat in her circuits again. It wasn't the real reason. And trying to believe something that wasn't true was almost unbearably hard for the A.I.. Yes, she tended to lie when she was nervous, but she did not believe her own lies. That was a huge difference. Exactly.

The real reason was that she felt pity for the human. Too much of it… far too much.

She always reckoned that the mute lunatic would appear at the facility in a total fit state, healthy and with an army of other humans to get her revenge. Or just kill the A.I. for fun. She wasn't really sure which of these applied more. But it was something like that in her head. The human was evil; all humans are and always were. So that was the closest thing to assume.

But she never thought that the human was so stupid to see GLaDOS and the facility as a refuge. A shelter. Or anything like that.

Maybe it wasn't even like that at all and GLaDOS was just analyzing the facts wrong. And the human was just jogging though the fields, getting attacked by a wild animal, seeing the shed and…..

"Oh, GLaDOS, who're you trying to fool now?"

Her circuits hurt and her processors still spitted warnings out on her HUD. She needed to cool down. But she knew she couldn't before she did not process the whole thing completely.

After the human collapsed, she assigned Orange and Blue to carry her away from the elevator and do a quick check-up. Of course, those two weren't specialized in that but it was easy to upload a fitting software to them. They have a lot of unused space on their hard discs which they just don't need it at all.

Their scan did not show up good results. The human was bruised all over and she had gash on her forehead. The bruises on her face were the most worrying; they showed that something, someone maybe, made a hard impact with her face. Which lead to the conclusion that her head was also hit. GLaDOS was no doctor and she was very much aware of that, thank you very much, but her common sense told her that whatever happened to the human could've been damaging her brain. Again. And even worse.

This reminded her that maybe the lunatic needed something to take care of her wounds or otherwise she'd stay here even longer. Maybe she even needed some medicine; who knows.

Opening the door to her chamber, Orange and Blue were walking inside, looking at her expectantly. Of course. They sensed when she wanted them to do anything, they were connected in some way, otherwise they'd never get her commands everywhere in the facility. It was something that made her uneasy at first; letting something be so close to her. But it didn't matter – she could cut off that connection at an instant if needed.

She instructed them what to do and sighed when they started to make another of those annoying, useless human-like gestures. "Go out, now, and stop that behavior. It looks stupid. But oh well, keep on going, it fits you", she told them in a monotone, steady voice which was dripping with sarcasm.

Then she realized that she was calm again. Finally. Overheating wasn't doing her any good at all. The almost unknown reason why everything happened the way it did was still upsetting and bothering her, but maybe it was fine that way. The lunatic would be gone in a few days anyway. She'd force her to.

And she would make sure that Orange and Blue would burn down that stupid shed so she'd leave her alone in the future.

~'~

Meanwhile the two robots had gathered the things GLaDOS instructed them to get and were on their way to Chell's room. They were silently opening the door, laying the things down on her desk and hesitated a moment; P-Body was still holding a blanked they sneaked out from the storage room without GLaDOS telling them to - it was always a thrilling experience for both of them to do something that could make the A.I. furious.

Carefully, the taller robot was draping the blanked over the sleeping woman, who didn't even move in her sleep. The two left the room as silent as they could, closing the door behind them.

~'~

Of course the robots' behaviors didn't go unnoticed by the A.I. at all - she was well aware of everything that happened in her facility due to the cameras she had installed in every corner. She was just keeping herself busy with other things to really care. She also gave up on analyzing why those two developed more and more human gestures and behaviors without having any human contact. It was something those damn scientists had programmed in their central processing unit she couldn't get rid of without making them malfunction more than usually. But she didn't bother to build new robots – for what? They did what they should do and that was fine. It was just a waste of time and resources.

She flipped her screen to the human's room to see that she was still deeply asleep and didn't look like she would be waking up anytime soon. Something bothered her about the thought of eventually leaving her roaming around in the facility without a care in the world. So she reprogrammed the lunatic's door that she'd get an instant alert when she was opening the door and leaving the room.

GLaDOS found herself still watching the sleeping figure when her two robots returned to her chamber, looking at her expectantly. She dismissed them, sending them to do more cooperate test chambers as it was one of the few things those two were able to do for hours and still bring her at least some results and something to analyze.

The testing euphoria was still absent, no matter how many tests those two idiots solved and no matter how well they did. A part of her hoped it would return after she got her body back from the moron's possessing, but nothing of that sort happened. She assumed that she needed humans to solve her test; it was programmed in her system somewhere where she could not reach and alter it. Something inside her shuddered as a thought began to materialize itself before she could suppress it: There was a human, in her facility, now. That human was better than any other test subject she ever had; and could do and solve every single test due to her seemingly endless stubbornness.

No, she would not consider this as an option. The human had to go as soon as she was able to stand on her both feet again. No discussion.


	3. Chapter 3

funnybombninja: thank you so much. 3

guest: thank you. (:

AN: You can buy those sweatpants mentioned in the chapter on , they were highly inspired by these. (:

~''~

When Chell awoke, the first thing she felt were her aches nearly everywhere. Especially her head felt like her brain wanted to crawl out of her skull. She opened her eyes slowly, taking in her barely lit surroundings and was at a loss at first. Where was she and what on earth was she doing here?

Sitting up carefully she tried to collect her thoughts. And then it hit her - hard. She ran away from what she had called 'home' for over 2 years and ran back to the facility she just barely made it out alive before. Suddenly she felt a wave of nausea washing over her but smothered that feeling by swallowing and trying to think clearly, taking a slow look around.

In the room she was in, there was a bed, she was currently sitting on. Across the bed a desk with a box on it, a sink, a fridge or something like that. On her left were a big closet and a door; on her right were also relatively big closets and racks on the right part of the wall, on the left part was a white door. She assumed, from what she remembered from her first stay in one of those relaxation chambers that the left door was most likely the door to the facility... so the door to her right was what? Maybe a bathroom? She really hoped so. And she was also somehow curious about that box on the desk.

Cautiously, she stood up, feeling her brain hammer against her skull - but it was still a bit better than directly after waking up - walking to the desk to examine the box. There were various items in it which she observed and then took out slowly. A first aid kit, some medication in small tubes, mostly pain medication from what she read on the labels, a few bottles of water and on the bottom of the box there were some... clothes?

She raised her eyebrow and cleared the box to get a better look at them; those were really fresh, clean clothes. Soft orange sweatpants - she was mildly surprised about the fact that Aperture made sweatpants looking like their jumpsuits with their logo printed hugely on the left leg - white shirts and a grey sweater. It looked really comfortable, especially compared to her own dirty, torn clothes. Dirty, yes. This reminded her that she really needed a shower.

Only wasting a short thought and hesitation on taking the medicine - if the A.I. was trying to kill her she would've already done so - she took some of the pills, swallowing them with big gulps of water. She sighed, wiping her mouth with her hand and took another look around while placing the water bottle on the small table which functioned as a night stand, to the left of her bed.

Then she finally approached the door to her right, opening it slowly, peeking inside. It was also dimly lit - and a bathroom, just like she suspected. Across her was a big shower stall with a drawer and shelf on its right, to her right was a simple sink and toilet. Chell stepped inside the room and the lights got a bit brighter, technology at its finest. She looked though the drawer and actually found clean towels, soap and shampoo. So GLaDOS wasn't exaggerating when she said that she rebuilt the facility completely.

The woman put the toiletries in the shower stall and went back to the bedroom, collecting some of the fresh clothes, placing them on the drawer before removing her own, starting with the boots, kicking them aside, stepping out of her jeans, pulling her shirt over her head. When she started to remove her bra, reality hit her. She was in Aperture, what if… Taking a look around the bathroom, she discovered none of GLaDOS' cameras, taking that as a good sign. Why would the paranoid A.I. spy on her in a bathroom? That thought itself was completely ridiculous.

Maybe the medication was going to her head, by whatever means, which was pretty likely because her headache felt a lot better. Stripping completely, she stepped under the shower, turning on the water, getting greeted by instant warm water.

~'~

Of course, there was a camera in the bathroom as well; there were cameras in every corner of the facility. Lack of control made her itchy. But GLaDOS did not bother to watch the human strip and clean herself. That was something she really did not want and need to see.

She rather spent her time watching Orange and Blue running through one of her new test chambers, analyzing their mistakes and accomplishments. Even though they did not help her at all, it was still science and helped her with getting her mind off of her mental breakdown a few hours ago.

It still bothered her. How and why was she feeling that way when she deleted Caroline just before the human left? How was it possible that those treacherous feelings were there again? She did not want them; and especially did not need them.

It was the first time in a… long while she desperately wanted her own concept plans. There were blueprints, concepts, endless streams of data for EVERYTHING floating around in her hard drives or even on paper but nothing, just nothing about herself that could help with anything. Help her understand what was going on.

Her own existence was a riddle to herself and so was her behavior at times. And finding nothing - not even in Old Aperture - just did not help her state of mind at all. Orange and Blue have been scanning every inch of the facility and the old building complexes but there was nothing at all.

It was like she never existed.

GLaDOS felt a familiar heat in her circuits again and bent her chassis, shaking her head slightly, shutting off her optic for a moment to calm down. This wasn't the first time that happened. It made her uneasy and itchy to not have any valuable information on something and seeing no way to get it.

Or were there still bits of Aperture that the cooperative testing robots could not reach?

She changed her view to those two just in time to see them hug because they had just done something very, very special it seemed. GLaDOS was too exhausted to really care, it was like that day was consuming more energy than that reactor could produce which was insane and not true.

Oh – another thought that was just about to consume her, but she was fast enough this time to just cancel it and switch to the camera in the humans room. To make sure that she was still there and not trying to kill anyone or set the facility on fire.

It seemed that GLaDOS just caught her when she finished dressing. She was standing in the room, holding a water bottle and wearing those stupid orange sweatpants and a white shirt. That was the moment when GLaDOS realized one thing she had missed when the lunatic arrived here: She lost weight. A lot. The woman had always been far from fat or chubby but now she was alarmingly thin.

Just when the A.I. finished her thought, the former test subject looked up, right into the camera and GLaDOS regarded her. She looked worn out, her face still held traces of her once stoic expression but it was shattered away by something that looked a lot like desperation and resignation to the A.I., especially decorated with all those bruises.

It was hard for her to see or understand what exactly was going on with the human or what happened to her but it did not help those feelings of pity. She never looked like that while she stayed at Aperture – or was it invisible for the A.I. because everything was blocked by that chassis? She realized that something was wrong with it at the latest when that moron was occupying it. He got megalomaniac in the blink of an eye. And she also felt different while being in that rotten vegetable and after being put back.

The whole situation was strange. Before the lunatic appeared, everything had its order. Everything was just fine, going as planned, no deviations, nothing. Then that stupid human, which was still holding eye-contact with her appeared and turned everything upside-down. And despite the fact she threw her out and swore to herself that she'd murder that freak when she just thought about returning to the facility... she was standing right there, blinking dumbly into the camera like she was processing something very complex in her head.

Maybe she was just overrun by memories as well. The A.I. was never going to find out – and honestly, she did not want to know what that little maniac was thinking; it freaked her out to assume that they were 'kind of feeling the same'.

Turning the video feed off, GLaDOS sighed and switched to Orange and Blue developing a new behavior she never witnessed before: They were actually sitting on the floor of her chamber, leaning on one-another and just stared into space. She thought about a cynic remark, anything to get them back to testing, but right now it didn't bother her.

There were more important things to do – on top of the list was to find out in which parts of Aperture her idiots didn't look around yet. Or couldn't reach. This would occupy her quite a while.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I am deeply sorry for the huge delay but trying to make an application for an art school seems to consume a lot more time than I'd originally thought. More updates from now on, I promise.

~'~

It was about two weeks after the human appeared at Aperture that GLaDOS decided to keep her if she wanted to stay. She had watched the human sleep at some nights and it seemed like whatever had happened to her was worse than the A.I. had originally thought. And she felt somehow guilty for a lot of things that seemed to bother the woman.

She just wanted to help her as a sop to her guilty conscience, yes. A few things she did were not… very professional and that had to be smoothened out.

Orange and Blue also seemed to blossom around the woman and they all seemed to get along well – without even talking, which fascinated her a lot and gave her another reason for new researches.

One of the biggest mysteries about the bot's behavior still was the day when Orange was collecting books from a stockroom for the woman to read. How did this little idiot even know that humans could read? The lunatic seemed to be happy about those books and she read them until she fell asleep. Just to wake up again, making noises like she was suffocating but she never screamed or made any other sound.

This made GLaDOS question if the nutcase was really a mute at all; somewhere deep inside she always assumed the woman just avoided talking out of pure obstinacy. A proof for that was the silent curse that her lips formed when she arrived here and was not able to get up on her own, but now… It would make things even more complicated but it could still work out, yes.

Now she only had to summon her to her chamber. Waiting for her to do it on her own was a pure waste of time.

~''~

Chell was lying on her bed when she heard a strange crackling sound, like static, which made her look up. "Test subject, please come to my main chamber." She heard GLaDOS voice. Still a bit distorted but as clear as she was standing in front of her - this made her chuckle a bit inwardly. GLaDOS had to communicate over speakers all the time – as far as the human could imagine, the A.I. had no vocal chords.

She already assumed a few days ago that GLaDOS was going to summon her to kick her out or kill her but it didn't really matter. A part of her had accepted the fact that she was going to die soon a long time ago and now that she had a few days of rest and peace to herself she could finally get over with that thought.

So she got up, took the sweater that was hanging on the chair at the desk, put it on and made her way to the A.I.s chamber without hesitation.

When she was nearing, the huge metal doors were already open, giving her an insight of the chamber. GLaDOS had her chassis turned to the other side of the room so she didn't really see Chell enter but felt it, like everything that happened in her facility. Turning around, she faced the human that stood before her with her hands in her pockets, regarding her with a look of expectancy and coldness. Her bruises were still visible but she looked better than when she arrived. A lot better.

"I was thinking", GLaDOS began, lowering her chassis so that she was almost eye-to eye to the human she was talking to, "you still seem in a pretty pitiful state. If you're not ready to face the outside world and other lunatic humans, I can understand that."

Chell's eyes were widening at that. She had expected about everything but THAT.

"Don't give me such a look", GLaDOS sighed, "I am not going to be your best friend. We're not going to hold hands or make floral wreaths; I am only offering you a place to stay in exchange for a bunch of jobs which need to be done. For whose I cannot use Orange and Blue or they need a third hand."

Ah, so that was the plan. Chell nodded, still looking at the A.I., waiting for further instructions.

"I take that as a yes; correct me if I'm wrong. You can start as soon as you want - the sooner the better. Orange and Blue will bring you your equipment and fetch you." GLaDOS was already starting to turn around again, when Chell followed her, making a small sound which sounded like a huff. So she halted and looked at the human again, waiting for her to explain what she wanted.

It was almost impossible for Chell to gesture or do anything at all when the A.I. was near her or looking at her. Something inside her closed up and froze, like she was afraid or in panic but it felt deeper and more intense than fear. She swallowed and felt her tongue sticking to the roof of her suddenly dry mouth which made it even more impossible to get out any sound.

Still looking at her, GLaDOS turned around so that she was facing the human properly. "If you can talk it would be the best for us all that you start doing so on occasions. I am no mind-reader", the A.I. said without any mocking in her voice which made Chell back up a few steps and look at her in pure confusion and shock, "Oh come on, I am no monster, if I were one, I would've just let you rot in space or killed you when you arrived here. So stop acting that way all the time."

Nodding, Chell stepped closer again, swallowing a few times. She tried to tell the A.I. what she wanted to know but no sound came out. It just didn't work at all. Shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders she looked up at the A.I. who was regarding her in mild interest.

"I think I get the idea what you want from your outstanding performance. I want you and those two idiots to go down into Old Aperture. There are some areas which are still undiscovered and unsearched and I still seem to miss a lot of data and files. And I am pretty sure that they are down there", she explained and Chell nodded, relieved that GLaDOS had somehow managed to understand her gestures, "and now get out. Prepare yourself and follow Orange and Blue's lead. Oh – to get to old Aperture, you have to use the lift at the end of this hall. Never join Orange and Blue through their reassembly machines – you could destroy the poor machine."

Because she instantly turned around after talking, GLaDOS missed the small smile that lit Chell's face for a moment at the last comment.

~''~

When she entered her room, Blue was already waiting by her bed on which it had placed all the equipment she needed. She looked at it and a strange feeling filled the pit of her stomach – it was excitement. She picked up that familiar orange Jumpsuit and regarded it, before looking over to Blue who seemed to understand and turned to leave. That's when Chell saw something on the backside of the robot she hadn't before: There was something written on his back.

She carefully reached out for the robot and he stood still, chirping questioningly while the woman kneeled down behind him. Atlas. That's got to be his name. Impatiently, the robot turned around, looking at her with his big, blue optic. "Atlas", she said quietly, a whisper barely audible but the robot caught what she was saying, hopping happily and storming out of her room.

Confused, she walked to the door, peeked outside and spotted Atlas running back to her with Orange in tow, placing the taller robot in front of her and made it turn around, gesturing to it's backside. P-body. So the other robot also had a name. It turned around and looked at her. "P-body?", she whispered guessingly and the robot also chirped happily like Atlas did before.

So they had names. It made her wonder why GLaDOS referred to them as "Orange" and "Blue" but the A.I. had always been a bit own in many, many ways. She shrugged to herself and looked at the two robots, nodding. They seemed to have caught her intentions and turned around, starting to leave.

She wondered if those two also had genders. P-body looked a lot more female than Atlas and their voices also sounded different from what she'd heard until now. Making a small mental note to keep from calling them "it", Chell returned to her room and looked through the pieces of garment that the robots put on her bed and felt a heat rush to her cheeks.

She mouthed a silent "oh" and picked the clothes up. The A.I. has thought of, well, everything and that made her somehow uncomfortable. There was the typical, orange Aperture jumpsuit, a pair of tight, knee-long trousers, a white tank top which was slightly longer than she remembered it from her last stay at Aperture and, well, what made her most uncomfortable: a sports bra. She always wore one during her last stays, yes, but that did not eliminate the fact that this time she knew for sure who had chosen those clothes for her.

Her cheeks were burning while she changed into those new clothes and Long Fall Boots. It was even more embarrassing to be embarrassed like that. It was nothing to worry about; GLaDOS just passed some standardized set of clothes, nothing more. Yes, exactly. She walked into the bathroom and splashed her face with some cold water, tying her hair in a tight pony tail before making her way to the elevator GLaDOS had mentioned.


End file.
